Bitis cornuta albanica Hewitt, 1937b

Guide to the Vertebrate Fauna of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Part II Reptiles, Amphibians and Freshwater Fishes; p. 76; Plate 21.

Current name: Bitis albanica Hewitt, 1937 .

Lectotype: PEM R8279 (formerly AMG 6860); Klienpoort, near Comittees, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa; W. Pannell, date unknown.

Paralectoypes (4): a) PEM R8278 (formerly AMG 7135); same details as lectotype. b) PEM R8281 (formerly AMG 664); Brakkloof, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa ; G. White, 1 October 1892. c) PEM R8280 (formerly AMG 453); no locality ( Springvale or Brakkloos), Eastern Cape Province, South Africa . d) PEM R1183; The Dene (“ Die Duine), Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Remarks. Bitis cornuta albanica was informally described in “Guide to the Vertebrate Fauna of the Eastern Cape, South Africa. Part II Reptiles, Amphibians and Freshwater Fishes (Hewitt 1937b). This was a popular work and it is evident that Hewitt had a detailed manuscript prepared, describing this subspecies and several others, that he planned to publish elsewhere. However, a disastrous fire at the Albany Museum in 1941 stalled this, and afterwards Hewitt never published anything else relating to herpetology. Branch (1999) designated PEM R8279 as lectotype. The same specimen is illustrated in Plate XXI (Hewitt 1937b) and Figure 6 (Branch 1999). Lectotype intact, but paralectotypes have ventral incisions.